Pumpkin Jack Reviews
I think Nicolas Meyssonnier's work falls just short of its action-platformer goals. But when you consider its great Halloween-themed visual design, engaging soundtrack, strong personality, creative potential, and its place in today's market, genre fans can still have a gourd time with it.
Pumpkin Jack is a blast to play, it’s got an amazing visual appeal with its colourful yet dark horror-themed environments, fun levels to explore and plenty of variation to keep things fresh.
A very fun and varied game, but with its short duration and little replayability there is little reason to revisit it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
One of the best indie games in recent months.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Pumpkin Jack isn't going to blow your mind here in 2021, but if you're on the market for a few hours of Halloween fun, you can't really go wrong. A game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and delivers with confidence.
Pumpkin Jack is a retro-inspired platformer that features a great sense of humor, creative boss fights, a variety of levels, a few interesting puzzles, and some inspired on-rails sections. While the combat can border on frustrating and the game can be completed in 4 or 5 hours, there is still a lot to love – especially if you are a fan of PS2 era platformers.
Pumpkin Jack might not add anything ground-breaking to the genre, but it’s an adventure platformer that tastes like home. Reminiscent of old school games such as Medieval, Spyro the Dragon, and Bugs Bunny: Lost In Time, it’s a joyful experience with a wide variety of game play. Albeit a bit clunky with controls and combat, the humour, dialogue and character capturing that Halloween spirit exceeds those trivial irks.
Pumpkin Jack is a fun little experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome. For 29.99, it’s not a bad deal and something the young ones in your family could easily enjoy in repeated sessions. The combat is fun, the puzzles are engaging, and the story has that charming storybook feel. If you enjoy 3D Platformers, this isn’t a bad one to give a download.
Pumpkin Jack is a brilliant throwback to old-school 3D platforming action games, providing a colourful adventure with a twist on the good vs. evil concept. Although you’ll most likely complete the game within six hours, if you’re very observant within each stage and find all the collectables, it’s a very enjoyable experience which anyone of all ages will find amusing and entertaining. The free next-gen upgrade greatly enhances the visuals over last-gen, as long as you’re willing to sacrifice half of the framerate – personally, I feel there should have been a third visual option as framerate and quality trump resolution every time. If you’re looking for a themed game to play this Halloween, and you’re not too keen on games filled with jump scares, gore, or intense spooks, then Pumpkin Jack is perfect. It even has the hidden Christmas mode which adds new content automatically during the month of December.
Pumpkin Jack is overall an alright game. Every aspect added to it wasn't deepening the depths of the ocean, but rather lengthening the size of the kiddie pool. Many things were added, but it felt like an attempt to hide its lack of depth because of the terrible implementation.
If you, like me loved Jak and Daxter on your PS2 back in the day and also loved MediEvil, I’m almost positive there will be something about Pumpkin Jack that will bring a smile to your face. It is exactly aimed at that kind of player, while also being quite accessible to new players and charming enough along the way to get you invested in exploring each level. It definitely doesn’t break any ground in the genre but it is a worthy entry in the genre even just solely based on how well it pays homage to what inspired it in the first place. It might not be everything that I want it to be now, but I’m already holding out hope to see a Pumpkin Jack 2 that answers all my prayers.
Pumpkin Jack is a hidden gem that I cannot push enough to players looking for a fun, short platforming adventure to experience. I honestly was not expecting much from this game going into it, but it ended up surprising me in more ways than one. This game brought on so many feelings with the art style, the music, and the incredibly Nightmare Before Christmas-like feeling. It is in my opinion that this developer has a bright future ahead of him from the incredible amount of work put into this game.
Pumpkin Jack is a simple and fun game that resembles MediEvil. The biggest flaw, perhaps, is the absence of a high difficulty or one that increases as you progress (from start to finish, the title is easy). However, this does not detract from the fun and despite this simplicity, Pumpkin Jack has its charm and it isn't boring at any time.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
In all and all, Pumpkin Jack accomplishes exactly what it wants to do. It's a charming action-adventure game with a couple of amusing jokes and engaging gameplay. It can be a bit rough, both in mechanics and visuals, though nothing game-breaking like impossible jumps. It would be nice if it was a bit longer or more engaging, though for the money it's still pretty good.
Pumpkin Jack is a superb game, but its flaws come baring teeth once the glass shatters and you start to notice them. The combat is fun and rewarding, the writing and story are fantastic, but there are certain parts of the game that fall short. Plus, for no more than 3 hours of playtime to finish, that $30 price tag is pretty hefty. Putting that aside, every single moment of that short playtime is fantastic. I loved every minute of it, and there's no doubt that developer Nicolas Meyssonnier made something extra special here.
Despite a dearth of original ideas, Pumpkin Jack is a highly accomplished paean to the classic 3D platformers of yesteryear from a solo developer. It's packed with variety, beautifully designed and highly playable so highly recommended for fans of the genre.
A great game for fans of 3D platforms. Pumpkin Jack guarantees few but fun hours of gameplay with characters full of personality and simple gameplay. Despite the little variety of enemies, the title has a good balance between moments of combat, exploration and minigames, making it a light and relaxed experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
After months of waiting, this spooky platformer inspired by PlayStation classics finally makes its way to a Sony console. It's a sweet experience from start to finish. What Pumpkin Jack might not pull off in terms of gameplay, it makes up for with great visual design and plenty of charm across its various levels.
Between the platforming, every level features a smaller-scale puzzle level. These can be some simple puzzles like pushing a bomb to dynamite. There’s some fun mini-games like the whack-a-mole equivalent puzzle.
Emblazoned across Pumpkin Jack’s website is the slogan “Medieval meets Jak & Daxter”. If that isn’t an indicator of what’s to follow, I’m not sure what would be. It’s indicative of everything this game stands for, warts and all, and feels very much a take it or leave it approach by the developer. ‘Remember those games from the late 90’s and early 2000’s that we all know and loved? Well, if you think you’ll still love them now, I’ve made a new one.’